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Article: Swiss consider long-term infrastructure needs; Switzerland is now considering what needs to be done to improve the rail network once major projects such as the new Alpine base tunnels and ETCS have been completed.(Alpine Railways)
- Article from:
- International Railway Journal
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SWITZERLAND spends a great deal on rail infrastructure, which it does in two ways. First, there is the regular four-year contract with the government, which provides a fixed budget of between SFr 5.6 billion ($US 4.3 billion) and 5.8 billion to cover the four years. This is for maintenance, services, and general improvements to the network. Incidentally, this is a two-way contract: in return Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) is expected to meet certain agreed targets.
Secondly, there is special funding for huge projects such as AlpTransit consisting of the Lotschberg, Gotthard, and Ceneri base tunnels. Another major project is the introduction of the European Train ...